


A Special Mission

by 2Nienna2



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Cats, F/F, Pre-Femslash, unusual PoV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:42:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27057403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/2Nienna2/pseuds/2Nienna2
Summary: Berúthiel sends her cats to enter the house of a woman she likes.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 11
Collections: Innumerable Stars 2020





	A Special Mission

**Author's Note:**

  * For [maitimiel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/maitimiel/gifts).



> Many thanks to [raiyana](https://archiveofourown.org/users/raiyana) for beta-reading! Any remaining mistakes are my own.

The cats wandered around the city in the dark. They preferred the dark, in fact.

In the dark, despite their notoriety, they didn’t stand out _that_ much. There were plenty of street cats, unaffiliated and underfed. The streets carried the scents of the day, amplified by the coolness of the night air; a cornucopia of smells and knowledge. They walked separately from each other, covering different parts of the streets and moving in and out, the ones who knew the way guiding the others. They weren’t really separate, however, for they could think together; at times becoming one large organism with various dangling parts, each melding into the others. They could see out of each other’s eyes too, smell out of each others’ noses. Their Queen had made it this way. They were melded with Her, but not as fully as they were with each other. She was able to withhold things from them, and they from Her. 

Their queen had given them a mission, which they usually enjoyed — but today she had sent them on a peculiar sort of quest. They were used to being sent to discover all sorts of strange things, to uncover the secrets everyone wished would remain hidden. But they were expected to be even more thorough this time — and they had not been told to find any particular piece of knowledge that their Queen desired. From Elta came the thought that their specific goal was _everything_ , which made sense to some, and less to others, but didn’t touch on the truly different aspect of their task this evening.

When they were done, they would show themselves to the target.

Alanwa, Bethel, Tucul, and Gelta were circling the building, picking up pieces of food, articles of clothing, scraps of writing — whatever they could find to take back to their Queen. They held it in their paws and their mouths, and — if they were really graceful — on their backs. The stuff was bound to get dirty regardless, but they at least _tried_ to keep it clean.

Elta, Tonton, Weilta, Ilena, and Santre entered the house. Elta jumped through a window. The others, who were not quite so agile, scuffled and scratched at the door, hoping that whoever was inside would get tired of the incessant noise and open it. They did this for quite a long while — Tonton was getting awfully hungry — when at last the door was opened. They moved out of view and then raced in. They were inside before the woman at the door had a chance to notice, or for them to get a look at her. 

They looked very carefully, storing the images in their collective mind’s eye. They would reveal the images to their Queen later, and She would drink them in, drawing them forth with languid fingers, writing them up for all to see. She would glue on the scraps the other cats had brought too, making a composition. In the process of drawing, the exact features of this woman’s house would be obscured. Instead of showing quite what the house looked like, the images would distill it into a Feeling. The Queen’s Feeling. The cats thought it was quite brave of Her, really, displaying her Feeling for all to see. But most others weren’t intelligent or wise enough to decipher it. 

Some of them had seen the woman before, in the market, while they were looking for food or just accompanying their Queen. The woman always got what she wanted, bartering gently as the price slunk up on the salesperson until it was just right. At least, the woman _seemed_ satisfied after these occasions. Their Queen had never taught them how to read other people’s thoughts. Maybe she didn’t know how…

Once most of the house had been captured, they went into the woman’s bed. It was red, and looked somewhat lavish, although they could tell the fabric was cheap, and it had a few rips. They snuggled in it and under it, waiting for the woman to return. (The ones who were in the bed were only at the edge, making it warm. _They_ were ready to slide down at a moment’s notice.) They shared this one image with their Queen, who after a few minute’s pause shared an image of herself grinning vivaciously. The plan was that they would wait until the woman came back and introduce themselves as best they could, and hope that whatever nebulous message their Queen intended to send would get across.

The next step, the revealing of their presence, was a hard one for the cats to wrap their heads around. They _lived_ in and for secrecy, while simultaneously destroying it in others. They lived in secrecy with _the sole purpose_ of destroying it. So maybe it wasn’t that strange. They knew their Queen had often needed secrecy for self-preservation, and was fed up with it. She was so, _so_ tired of hiding, tired of the shame and fear it fed, and the dullness and loneliness. When She first had developed Her own form of power, She had opened locked boxes everywhere She could. She was young then. Still hardly past twenty. But now She had a bit more care, a bit more ambition rather than rage. The cats saw this, and loved Her all the more for it.

After spending a while taking in the textures of the woman’s room, most of the cats left to search the rest of the house, while Weilta stayed to wait for the woman’s return. They had decided it was best, maybe less intimidating, if only one cat physically delivered the message (the others would be helping in their minds.) Besides, they were _bored._

At last the woman came in. She had curly hair that somehow managed to be between black, brown, and golden depending on where the light hit. The cats wondered if it changed with the seasons. Their Queen’s hair was always the same, a pale sticky brown (sticky from the substances She put in it so it could be shaped how She pleased.) But they _had_ seen people whose hair colors changed before. But they were distracting themselves, as tended to happen when thoughts bounced from head to head like one of those ball games played by children in the city.

Weilta nuzzled the woman’s legs. At first a look of shock passed over her face. The cats were, after all, notorious, at least among the classes that they tended to infiltrate. They quite liked the sight of her face, then, and more than one mind saved it for later perusal – perhaps in revealing themselves they could find information?

And then the woman’s face composed itself, and she knelt down, looking at Weilta with clear hazel eyes.

"So your queen wants me?" she asked softly, letting Weilta sniff her knuckles. Some of the cats expressed feelings of surprise and indignation at this ignoble treatment. Others urged Weilta to continue, thinking it good progress that the woman was willing to offer her scent. The woman continued: “And she has not sent you in secret…” She paused thoughtfully, and Weilta meowed at her, bumping her head against the woman’s hand. “She must either think highly of me,” the woman continued, daring to scratch Weilta behind the ear. Her hands were gentle. “Or want me to _think_ she thinks highly of me.”

Elta appeared in the doorway behind her, meowing softly. Weilta quickly slipped away from the woman, joining her in the doorway where they both looked back at the kneeling woman.

The woman smiled. “Tell your queen I’m intrigued.”


End file.
